Privacy Policy
Last updated October 5, 2026
Poko is a map of places your friends love. To make that work we keep your account, the places you rate and save, and who you follow. We don’t show ads, we don’t sell your data, and we don’t use third-party analytics or tracking.
What we collect
Your phone number
You sign in with your phone number and a code we text you. Google’s Firebase sends and checks the code. We keep the number to sign you in and to match you with friends who have it in their contacts. It is never shown to other members.
Your profile
Your name, handle, bio, and profile photo.
What you post and save
Ratings (score, note, tags, friends you tag, and visit date), photos and captions, comments, reactions, pokes, saved places, collections, private notes, places you add to the map, and tag votes. Before a photo leaves your phone, Poko removes its location data.
Contacts, if you turn it on
Poko turns each phone number in your contacts into a scrambled code (a hash) on your phone and sends only those codes. Names and other contact details never leave your phone. We keep the codes for up to 180 days so we can tell you when a friend joins. You can delete them any time in Settings.
Location
If you allow location, the map starts where you are. To find places, Poko sends our servers the map area you’re looking at, and sometimes your location so it can sort your saved places by distance. We don’t store your location with your account. Our hosting provider’s request logs can keep these requests for a limited time.
Rate Today reads your photos’ locations on your phone to suggest places you went. For each stop it sends only an area rounded to about 100 meters, and we don’t keep it. Your photos, their capture times, and their exact locations stay on your phone unless you attach a photo to a rating.
How you use Poko
To improve your recommendations, we record which search results you see and tap, the kind of place you searched for, and what you save and rate. We keep this for up to 25 months. It doesn’t include your notes, your photos, the words you type into search, or your exact location. You can turn it off and delete it in Settings under Personalize recommendations.
Device details
A push notification token and a random installation ID so we can send you notifications, and your time zone so streaks follow your calendar day.
Imports
If you import your places from another app, we keep the places, notes, and scores from that file. You can erase your import history in the app.
Who can see what
- Any Poko member can see your name, handle, bio, profile photo, join date, follower counts, leaderboard rank, Want to Go list, and public collections. New collections are public unless you make them private.
- People you’ve accepted as followers can see your ratings, notes, scores, comments, reactions, and badges. If your account is public, anyone can follow you without asking. Make your account private to approve each follower.
- Place photo galleries can show photos from your ratings to any member, without your name.
- Friends who have your number in their contacts may be told when you join.
- Nobody sees your phone number.
Services we use
We use these companies to run Poko. They handle your data only to provide their service to us.
- Google: Firebase Authentication (sign-in codes), Firebase Cloud Messaging (notifications), and Google Cloud (our servers, activity database, and logs) in the United States.
- MongoDB Atlas: our main database.
- Cloudflare: our network edge, which limits abuse, and storage for photos.
- Apple: Apple Maps search and push notification delivery.
- OpenFreeMap: map images. Your phone loads them directly, so OpenFreeMap sees your IP address and the map area you view.
- Vercel: hosts this website.
Some place photos load straight from the place’s own website, which can see your IP address.
How long we keep it
- Your account and what you post: until you delete it or your account.
- Contact codes: up to 180 days.
- Recommendation activity: up to 25 months.
- Photos you uploaded but never posted: 7 days.
- Backups: up to 90 days.
When you delete a rating, it disappears from Poko and its photos are deleted. We keep a record of the deleted rating’s text and score in our internal records.
Your choices
- Make your account private, remove followers, or unfollow anyone.
- Delete your ratings, comments, saves, and collections.
- Delete shared contacts, and turn off or delete recommendation activity, in Settings.
- Turn notifications off in Settings or in iOS.
- To delete your account and its data, or to get a copy of your data, email hello@getpoko.app. We’ll confirm the request with the phone number on your account.
Children
Poko isn’t for children under 13. If you think a child under 13 has an account, email us and we’ll delete it.
Where your data lives
Poko is available in the United States, and our servers are in the United States.
Changes
If we change this policy, we’ll update this page and the date at the top. For big changes, we’ll tell you in the app.
Contact
Questions or requests: hello@getpoko.app